Chocolate Apple Cupcakes

So I keep seeing everything for fall popping up more and more every day. Even in my own kitchen I've noticed that we've shifted from the bbq outside every night to the heartier warmer meals of Autumn. I've been canning jam and potatoes and hopefully pumpkin soon.  So I got thinking, with all the changes going on what says Fall more than caramel apples. I've been really wanting to attempt a salted caramel for a while. So I buckled down and said okay "let's do it!"

Now if you know me you know that come Christmas I usually make "Gourmet" Caramel Apples. And by "Gourmet" I mean the big chocolate and topping covered caramel apples you see in specialty stores and at the fair. Their super simple and easy to make but I wanted to try something different. So we did Chocolate Apple cupcakes with Caramel buttercream and Caramel sauce.

 Of course my "choco-holic" son was in sneaking bits of cake batter and wouldn't wait for them to be frosted but these melt in your mouth cupcakes were fun to make, even if I did stress about the caramel the whole time.

All you need to make them is

1 box chocolate cake mix and ingredients listed on box.
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2-3 small or medium granny smith apples peeled cored and diced


For the frosting
1 cup shortening
1 lb powdered sugar
2 tsp butter flavoring
2 Tbsp meringue powder
2-4 Tbsp water.
3/4 cup caramel sauce

For the Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp salt

Mix up the cake mix as directed on the box adding the spices and apples then bake as directed.  When they are done let them cool to room temp.  I made my Buttercream using a recipe I had memorized but if you have a favorite recipe I suggest using that. You want to leave your frosting really stiff so that when you add the caramel you don't end up with soup. Only add enough water to pull your frosting together for you.

Now remember this was my first attempt at Caramel Sauce. Again if you have a recipe you prefer by all means use it!   I added my sugar and water to a saucepan and swirled them together to get them mixed together. Then I turned the heat on med- med-high and let it go. It took a while but slowly the sugar dissolved and started to brown. ** I did not stir the sauce. Occassionally I would swirl the pot not often** When it reached that nice amber caramel color I pulled it off the heat and added the butter. **This is when I whisked the sauce** Whisk the butter and salt into the sauce until smooth, it does bubble up a lot and get thick but keep whisking it will liquify again. Then whisk in the cream. I immediatly poured it into a glass  measuring cup and set it aside to cool for a minute. Be sure to watch the pot, it turns really fast!! Within a second it can burn!!

After the caramel had cooled to the point it wouldn't melt my frosting I added  about 3/4 cup of the sauce to the frosting and mixed it well. Then I frosted the cakes and drizzled the remaining sauce over the top.

The chocolate is sweet, the apples a little sour and the caramel a bit salty! The perfect combination! Hope you enjoy!!

Crunchy Mac and Cheese

Kids have funny a sense of taste. My three for example: Tato HATES spice. And I mean hates. She won't eat anything if it has black pepper on it, or if she thinks it does. Little does she know she actually eats it all the time! Boo on the other hand LOVES spicey things. He loves hot sauce on his eggs and hot and sour soup. Part of that is his SPD. He tends to be hyposensitive when it comes to food. But even before we noticed problems he was all for anything spicey... Just like his Mom! Brookers is just plain a grazer. She doesn't care what it is, if it's food she'll eat it!

So how do you please such a picky crowd? My answer is crunchy mac and cheese. My kids named this dish crunchy because of the cereal I put on top. The idea for this dish came one night when we ordered Pizza Hut. For some odd reason we decided to order their mac and cheese with bacon too. It tasted good. We liked it. Little did we know that there was something better in the works.

A couple weeks later I got to thinking that that mac and cheese was really good but I thought I could make it better. After several months of trial and error I came to this recipe.

• 1 stick + 3 TBSP (reserved) margarine melted
• 5 TBSP flour
• 6 c. milk
• 4 oz. velveeta melted
• 4 oz. grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 8 oz. mild or med. cheddar cheese cubed
• 1 c. grated colby jack cheese
• 1 lb bacon
• 1 lb elbow macaroni
• 2 c. Honey bunches of oats cereal crushed
• 2 TBSP mustard
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Fry bacon till crisp and remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain grease.
3. Melt stick of butter in large pot then add flour and mix to form a roux. Let flour mixture cook for 1 minute then slowly add milk. Whisk together till smooth and mixture starts to thicken.
4. Then add melted velveeta and whisk till smooth. Next add your grated sharp cheddar a handful at a time. Allow the cheddar to melt in between handfuls so that it does not clump and melts smoothly.
5. Once sauce is thickened and cheese is melted add mustard, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Whisk together and set sauce aside.
6. Cook macaroni in boiling salted water for five minutes. It will finish it's cooking in the oven.
7. While macaroni is cooking crumble bacon. Add remaining reserved melted butter to crushed cereal and set aside.
8. When pasta is done drain thoroughly. Add cooked pasta, half of the bacon, and cubed cheese to the sauce mix well and pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle in order the remaining bacon, colby jack cheese, and cereal mixture over the top of mac and cheese.
9. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly throughout and golden brown.

Footnotes

• You can substitue any mixture of cheeses that you feel pair well. This dish also reheats very well in the microwave. I like to serve this as a main dish meal with a small salad and dinner rolls. Also works great with skim milk and whole wheat pasta for a healthier version. The kids just eat it up! Literally!

Breakfast for Dinner

Happy summer everyone! It's so nice when I don't have to get up before the suns up to get my oldest ready for school. We get to sleep in and have pajama days. I love those days! When we spend till lunch in our pj's and finally decide that we better get dressed before Dad gets home. It's great! But with the lazy days come the hot lazy days.

You know the one's I'm talking about. The ones that the heat just sucks the energy right out of you. And you were able to feed the kids pop tarts for breakfast, pb&j for lunch but now its the dreaded hour of dinner. Now normally I can't wait for dinner time. Because I LOVE TO COOK! And I love that we get that time to be together as a family before we rush off to work on whatever needs to be done. Or usually that my husband has go back to work.

But when the heat is so much that the thought of turning on the stove let alone the oven is enough to make even me go running from the kitchen in fear what do you do? I had one of those days this week. It was hot, I was tired, and obviously my kids were not in the mood to actually like each other that day. 

I trudged through the house to the fridge looking at what could I make that wouldn't require effort, I decided on pancakes. A staple in our house, pancakes are usually made from a made from scratch mix that I'd made a few weeks before. Or if in a pinch Bisquick. I don't use just water like I know some of you like to do. Especially with Krusteaz. But use whatever mix you normally have on hand.  I add eggs, milk, and vanilla to mine with the result being a thick fluffy sweet pancake that my kids just eat up. Literally! They eat like five or six pancakes a sitting. 

Well this time, I was out of vanilla and didn't want just a plain old boring pancake and syrup for dinner.  This is kind of off subject but my favorite kind of ice cream shake is cherry chocolate chip cashew.  And as I searched for what to add to this pancakes I thought that all I really wanted was a shake for dinner. Lightbulb! I had cherries, and I had chocolate. Cashews? Nope, but the thought of those in a pancake just didn't seem right to me.

So I threw together this crazy idea and twenty minutes later and the griddle not heating up my house this is what we ended up with.

The recipe (approximatly)

4 cups pancake mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract ( I use butter or almond if I'm out of vanilla)
1/2 c pomegranate juice
2-3 cups milk
1/2 c sugar
Pitted Cherries
1 cup chocolate chips or about half a bag
2-3 drops red food coloring

I just threw everything in the bowl and mixed it together.  Then we topped them with some whipped cream, whole cherries and chocolate shavings.

Now if you know me you know that I usually don't follow a recipe. They never turn out for me. So everything I make is usually just me throwing together a make-shift recipe.  And when it turns out trying to remember the amounts! You can add more or less of anything I use.  I added the juice to add some fruity flavor to these but you don't have to use it. The only thing I will say about the milk is that milk is expensive. I use it because I can't stand just water in pancakes. But feel free to use just water or to half and half it with the milk.

I leave my pancake mix a little thin and let it sit for a few minutes. I like it to thicken up before I pour it on the griddle. It gives you a thicker fluffier pancake. If you come back and your batter is too thick add a little more liquid and use the consistency you and your family like.

 Brooker's ate 3 of these and the other two together polished off almost 10 and were complaining they wanted more. Definately another hit around here! Next time I have a quick and easy chicken salad recipe for another hot day dinner!

Happy Cooking!